Nearly 15 years since the cult hit Dennou Coil, its spiritual successor The Orbital Children has just been released. This is the story of how and why they came to be, by the hand of master craftsman and visionary director Mitsuo Iso—this is how he animates the future.
Creators tend to have their range of expression limited when working on big franchises, and that’s precisely why Fate/Grand Order – Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot is such an interesting case. This is how a young team amidst a huge mess challenged anime production standards to create something spectacular.
Our yearly animation awards have once again gathered animators, directors, producers, writers, translators, fans, and everything in between to pick the greatest contributions to anime and the world of animation in general for the year 2021—enjoy!
Makoto Shinkai’s modern work is defined by its immediate circumstances to a larger degree than most people realize, be it the themes he decides to tackle or the finesse in the delivery that depends on the whims of the industry. This is how they affected Your Name, Weathering with You, and even his new film Suzume no Tojimari.
Anime’s production schedules, the wellbeing of its creators, and the quality of their work are deeply interconnected. It’s a complex balance fraught with misunderstandings, and even lies by exploitative companies protecting the marketability of their products.
Despite being a directorial debut for Yosuke Hatta, the cohesive clarity of Ousama Ranking makes it a masterclass in adaptation already. And so it’s time to explore the series’ background, as well as the role that the anime’s pointed subjectivity has in turning a childlike tale into a polished epic adventure without compromising its core.
The Fall 2021 anime season is frontloaded with a few truly exceptional creative efforts, then chockful of titles with interesting teams having to brawl with this industry’s circumstances. Let’s dive deep into a season that, for the good and the bad, is very representative of anime’s current state.
Let’s dedicate a final look at Maidragon‘s second season and its role in KyoAni’s gradual rebuild—the why and how they made a beautiful show with a smaller team than it takes to animate an average episode of anime nowadays.
What if an overlooked action expert directed a thrilling episode, effortlessly switching between momentousness and hilarity? What if a generational animation talent invited his best peers to his animation direction debut? What if that wasn’t hypothetical, but the latest episode of Tropical Rouge Precure?
Sonny Boy is an anomaly in commercial media, let alone as a TV anime: a fascinating creator given a blank cheque that he cashed in to explore his philosophical views, mixing cultural touchstones and personal musings into a unique sci-fi story, and tweaking animation production norms to illustrate a singular worldview with unmatched cohesion.